THE FUTURE HOLD A GREEN ECONOMY FOR NIGERIA
BY Anjorin Fehintola farouk

After the abolition of trans-Atlantic slave trade, agricultural production and mining had launched Nigeria into the international trade scene .Even though the Britons used our resource potentials to guarantee their economic prowess; Nigeria only became economically relevant when it began to trade its agricultural produce for foreign exchange. As at 1999, Cocoa and rubber were the major foreign exchange earners.
Before the first oil discovery in Nigeria in january1956, agricultural production has been the bedrock of a pretty thriving Nigerian economy. Exports of cash crops expanded rapidly and became the major source of income for farmers and government provision of infrastructures which stimulated economic growth. Cocoa cotton palm produce, groundnuts, rubber as well as timber were exported and the flow of money in circulation increased considerably- particularly between 1943-1945.
In the wake of an oil boom economy, Nigeria has taken a globally unfriendly downturn in development trends. Sadly speaking, discovery of oil in Nigeria has brought to the fore; corruption, greed like never before, unhealthy rivalry , abysmal oppression and love of power and consequent looming unemployment rate.
The Nigerian problem stems from insidious mindsets entertained by all to amass individual gain. The average Nigerian is so quick to blame all his predicaments on the leaders. Looking at it from the Bird-eye-view as well as the Worm-eye-view; Nigerians as much as the inept and short-sighted leaders are as guilty of the socio-economic and political ills of the country. Unfortunately, past and existing Nigerian leaders have a mis-educated idea of development such as importing policies and development trend from other countries and trying to incorporate them into the Nigerian polity while the people ignorantly confuse these fascination of western model of developments with vision.

The bane of crude oil reserve is its 80% depletion within 35- 84 yrs, depending on how rapidly it is used. Besides the fact that they are limited, yearly consumption still rises at a rather alarming rate. Add the estimated year above to the time we first hit oil and subtract from the present year. It goes without saying that, It wont be long when our crude oil would hit a remainder of 20% (an amount considered too expensive to extract). That indulgence called crude oil shall outlive its purpose and vanish like a mirage in the desert but our vast soil and propitious agricultural tendencies would remain. Only then are we going to revert back to our true identity and uphold the vast potentials that awaits in our sustainable agricultural inclinations

I read somewhere that , “when what we do, how we do it, and the way we do it no longer fit our purpose we must urgently choose to do something else”. The monopoly economy that runs more or less on only oil generated revenues leaves the nation at the risk of a fiasco and resultant breakdown if we remain myopic and uncreative.
Nigerian government embarks on a wild goose chase when we can start a more visionary leadership by providing an adequate and even distribution of basic amenities such as food for all clothing and shelter. Moreover, from a well structured agrarian sector , we can draw out our own model of development- one made by the us and for us.
A transparent agricultural development mechanism is a very good place to start ; it would ensure availability of basic amenities, put the ominous population of approx 68 million unemployed Nigerian graduates to work, foreign exchange , currency appreciation as well as serve as an inevitable surrogate for the imminent dwindling oil sector.




The Author is an advocate of a Green Nigeria